Dharma Productions latest release, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya (HSKD) has generated a lot of curiosity among the masses and so the team – Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, producer Karan Johar and director Shashank Khaitan – was expecting good news from the ticket counters. Also, the hit pairing of Varun and Alia and good music are also considered prime factors for the movie performing reasonably well at the box office.

The film managed to earn Rs 9.15 crores on the opening day and Rs 10.90 crores on Saturday. After receiving good reviews from critics and a favourable response from the audience, especially youth, the Varun-Alia starrer has witnessed a huge jump on Sunday and garnered Rs 13.25 crores thus making the total of Rs 33 plus crores in the opening weekend. The trade pundits are expecting around Rs 65 to 70 crores lifetime business from HSKD.

Trade guru Atul Mohan points out, “The overall packing of Varun-Alia hit pairing, foot-tapping music and good publicity helped the film to earn Rs 33 crores plus in the opening weekend. This was expected. The target audience i.e. the youth and also the family audience just lapped it up, what with the film running ‘house full’ at several places on Sunday. The film is doing quite well in the overseas too.

Exhibitor-distributor Akshaye Rathi feels, “HSKD has all that it takes to draw in audience from all sections of the society. It’s Varun’s biggest solo weekend opening. While his first solo film, Main Tera Hero earned Rs 6 crores on day one this one did well with Rs 9 crores plus. Had it not released during the month of Ramzan, the collections could have been better.” Akshaye explains, “It shows that the audience has started accepting young generation actors like Varun besides their fondness for the three superstar Khans – Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman. Surprisingly, the big Marathi release, Lai Bhaari proved true to its name and gave tough to HSKD lot of places considering Riteish Deshmukh’s mass appeal. Hopefully, it will be followed by another big Marathi release, Shreyas Talpade’s Poshter Boyz releasing on August 1.”

It remains to be seen whether HSKD will bring in more footfalls in the second week and help Varun create a new BO record.